Film Fest: Tears of a Clone

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Clone High episode
“Film Fest: Tears of a Clone”
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 4
Guest star(s) None
Writer(s) Erica Rivinoja
Director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Production no. 104
Original airdate 17 November 2002
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"A.D.D.: The Last 'D' is for Disorder" "Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening"

Film Fest: Tears of a Clone is an episode of Clone High.

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Synopsis

Clone High is holding a Film Festival. Abe’s making an inspirational sports movie. Joan’s making an art film expressing her feelings for Abe. Gandhi’s making a buddy cop film with George Washington Carver. Cleo’s making an autobiographical film. JFK can’t get past the casting couch stage. Meanwhile, the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures invites itself over to Scudworth’s house; so Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron redecorate.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Episode walkthrough

After Clone High actually wins a cross-country meet, the clones goes on a massive looting rampage. Van Gogh breaks into the library and everyone steals books; a cheerleader is thrown through an upper-story window; Caesar breaks into the A/V room and steals more books; a car is flipped and Gandhi drinks oil out of the car’s muffler; Genghis Khan flips the pool and sets it on fire; and JFK steals a sheet of glass and uses it to destroy a brick wall.

Prof. Sheepman tries to connect with the students and help prevent further riots. They have a “care-frontation,” and Mr. Sheepman becomes the “care-iff.” He tells the clones they have to let out their emotions instead of bottling them up. Gandhi mentions that Joan makes movies to express herself, but Joan is quick to point out that her art films are strictly not intended for public viewing. Ignoring this, Abe suggests the First Annual Take Back The Afternoon Film Festival To Save Clone High.

Meanwhile, the riot has caused the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures to question Scudworth's leadership. While in teleconference, Scudworth lets slip that he has his own plans for the clones. The Board is not pleased, and propose a dinner meeting at Scudworth’s house. Scudworth, however, is worried. He hasn’t redecorated since graduating from ASU, and Mr. Butlertron agrees to help him fix up the place.

Gandhi wants to make an interracial buddy cop film with George Washington Carver, but Carver says he doesn’t like that kind of movie. He finally agrees, when Gandhi tells him there’s a part for Carver's genetically-engineered Anthropomorphic Peanut, as the film’s bad guy, Señor Peenee. Carver plays “Leon Black, a Harvard-educated scientist turned expert police detective,” and Gandhi plays “Tandoori Jones, a jive-talking, smooth-walking typical Indian supercop who plays by his own rules: none.” Together, they are “Black and Tan.” Tensions boil over during a dispute over the line "Say what!?" Carver almost leaves the projects, but finally ends up rewriting his character.

JFK gets the keys to the editing room, and uses the couch in there for auditions. Of course, the auditions are merely him having sex with women, and he never gets around to making a movie.

Abe convinces Joan to make a movie to express her feelings. She makes a film called "The Truth Wears Sideburns," a black-and-white art film starring herself as herself, and Genghis Khan as “Gabe Lincone,” a character who is in love with her best friend, only hasn’t told her yet.

Cleo's film is an autobiography entitled "The Best Of The Best Of The Best Of The Best Of The Best," directed by Ang Lee .

Abe makes a movie about a giraffe who plays football titled "It Takes a Hero." At the end of the movie, the giraffe kicks a field goal to win a game 13-12 and is beamed up by a spaceship to go "home," leaving the future mother of his child behind.

Joan’s movie is finally ready when she talks to Abe, who calls her a “friend” and says he’s interested in Cleo. Joan is heart-broken, and throws her movie away, but Abe finds it.

Meanwhile, even after Mr. Butlertron helped Scudworth redecorate, Scudworth still asks him to stay out of sight while the Shadowy Board are there. But, once they get there, Scudworth has absolutely no social graces, and Mr. B, seeing Scudworth bomb, intervenes at the last minute and helps Scudworth. Scudworth introduces Mr. B, first as his butler, then as his friend. The Board, who had come to kill Scudworth, love Mr. B, and decide to give Scudworth another chance.

At the film fest, Joan realises her movie is on the program. She tries to convince Abe to take it off, saying it’s embarrassing for both of them. Abe refuses. She tries to get the film back from the projectionist, Thomas Edison, who also refuses. It’s time for the movies to start. First up is Black and Tan, which is quite well-received. Next it’s Abe’s movie, which is long and terrible. Cleo’s movie is about to start, when the projection room burns down. Joan thinks she’s saved, but somehow her film made it through the fire. They play it, but it’s so steeped in metaphor that no one besides Sigmund Freud gets it. Abe calls it the “best film fest ever,” which sparks another riot.

Joan and Abe get a chance to talk, and Abe clearly had no idea what was happening in Joan’s movie. Abe telling Joan that his film had a hidden meaning: the giraffe represented himself. Joan asks who the pregnant girl represented, and Abe naturally ignores the question.

[edit] Featured cast

[edit] Songs

[edit] Expressin’ Yo’self

by Liam Lynch
performed by Will Forte

When you need a new start,
Just look in your heart,
And begin the redecoration.
Your problems will end
When you start to spend
On a rug from a Third World nation.
We’re expressin’ ourselves.
Expressin’ ourselves.
Sometimes it’s fun
When you are young
To bottle up your emotions.
But then you realize,
We’re all gonna die
If we don’t get into the motion
Of expressin’ ourselves.
Do it right.
Workin’ real hard all through the night.
To let everybody know
Who we are
Who we are
Who we are
Expressin’ yo’self!!!

[edit] Featured clones

[edit] Deleted scenes

  • Alternate versions of the discussion of the Olive Garden. In one, Scudworth says, “All the waiters look like Tony Danza.” In another, he says, “It’s like eating in the private kitchen of a racist Italian stereotype!” ‘Racist’ was changed to ‘delightful’ for obvious legal reasons.[1]
  • A longer version of the talk between Abe and Joan at the Grassy Knoll, where, after Abe tells Joan the film festival is all about her, he lifted his leg and let out a huge fart. Then, a title card appeared, saying “Clone High USA: For your Emmy consideration.”
    • The joke was vetoed by the episode’s credited writer, Erica Rivinoja.[1]
  • A long alternate ending involving a producer named Aaron Schpelling (a reference to television producer Aaron Spelling) asking Joan to direct a German sitcom called Shnitzel Hausen. We then saw a scene from Shnitzel Hausen, which was very similar to Joan’s film, only with a laugh track, and with David Hasselhoff instead of Genghis. After that, we cut to two Germans watching the show. One turned to the other and said, “Do you think Joan will ever get together with Abe?”[1]
  • A scene with cloned Cy Young pelting Abe and Mr. Sheepman with apples.[1]
  • An extended version of Shadowy Figure’s line: “Scudworth! You’re walking on thin ice, man. Clone of Karen Carpenter thin; Jim Carrey’s chances of ever winning an Oscar thin; I’m talking thin here!”
    • A sound clip of this speech can be found here (click ‘shadowy fig’).
  • A scene in which JFK tries to submit his movie to Thomas Edison, who rejects it, on the grounds that it is "just a copy of Mannequin 2 with the title crossed out" and replaced with JFK’s new title, "Check Out The Cans On That Fake Broad."
    • The voice-over and initial stages of animation for this scene were completed. A leica reel was made, which can be viewed here (click ‘jfk’).

[edit] References

[edit] Historical references

  • Buddha is the one who suggests the riot. Buddhists are entirely non-violent.
  • Mother Teresa is making a “teen slasher sex romp.” Original Mother Teresa was a nun.
  • Thomas Edison is the projectionist. This is appropriate, since Original Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.
  • The only one to understand Joan’s highly symbolic film is Sigmund Freud. Original Sigmund Freud was the inventor of psychoanalysis.

[edit] Popular culture references

  • The banner at the cross-country meet reads “Big Cross Country Meet Today. *N Sync Concert Moved To Nurse’s Office."
  • Scudworth’s subplot, being a fairly typical sitcom plot, features a laugh track.
  • In his apartment, Scudworth has a poster for a film called "Reserved Dogs," an obvious reference to the film Reservoir Dogs. He also has a poster for "Pish," a reference to the band Phish. Another poster features a Bob Marley look-alike with the caption "RASTAEARI," a play on Rastafari.
  • Scudworth shops for new furniture at Restoration Pottery Pier and Barrel; a mix of Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Pier 1, and Crate & Barrel.
  • JFK’s casting couch scenes are a parody of the ending of the film, What's Up, Tiger Lily?.
  • Cleo refers to her director simply as “Ang.” Ang Lee is a famous director.
  • In Joan’s film, when it sounds like someone is speaking backwards, it is actually just the phrase “Celine Dion-athon” repeated over and over.

[edit] Trivia

  • During the pre-credits teaser, the Announcer yells at a live-action person named ‘Doug.’ The name comes from Doug Reid, one of the Clone High interns. However, by the time it came to shoot the scene, Doug had left, and so his part was played by Clone High’s production assistant, Matt Kuhn.[1]
  • The music played during the cross-country meet is a marching band-style version of the Clone High theme song.
  • Some insight into the reasons for cloning historical figures comes when Shadowy Figure mentions that the Secret Board wants “clone soldiers trained for superior intellectual and physical combat.”
  • On Abe’s poster for the film festival, ‘film’ is misspelled.
  • During the scene when Joan thinks that Abe might want to be more than just friends with her, he calls her “friend,” “pal,” “bro,” “man,” “amigo,” “buddy,” “fella,” and “guy” – all within 35 seconds.
  • In the same scene, the music playing is American Football's "Stay Home."
  • A Bob Marley poster in Principal Scudowrth's house (before the re-decoration) has the word Rastafari misspelt as "Rastaeari".
  • Mr. Butlertron has the ability to cry like a normal human being.
  • After the projection room fire, Cleo and Joan both conclude that there is no God.
    • In the very next scene, Scudworth says that religion is for “fools and liberals.”
  • Though all of the events in the “Next time on a very special Clone High” do happen during the series, none of the animation is ever used again.
    • The announcer tells us that JFK and Cleo will break up “for reals” in the next episode. But, by the time Episode 5, Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening has started, they are already broken up (see discussion of this in Episode 5 Trivia).
    • Another piece of misinformation comes when the announcer tells us that Joan and Cleo’s cat fight will be next episode, when it actually occurs in Episode 8, A Room of One's Clone: Pie of the Storm. This is not entirely surprising, since, as we will discover in upcoming episodes, the announcer loves the catfight footage.
  • Cleo’s assertion that she is “incredibly well-endowed, boob-wise,” and Abe telling Joan the film fest is all about what she has, “heart-wise,” caused all the writers to start over-using the suffix ‘-wise’ during office conversations.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Pava, Adam. Episode Four: ‘Film Fest: The Tears of A Clone’ Notes (HTML). CloneHighUSA.com.

[edit] External links

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